The Mom Files: 16 Months

December 13, 2015

So Harrison is now 16 months old. The last month has been a big (steep?) learning curve for our family – MYSELF, specifically. We used to keep Harrison in the living room thanks to a couple of gates and he would always scream when we left the room (FOMO, much?). Once he started walking, I (on my mom’s urging) took down the gates and gave him freedom on the main floor. We blocked off the bathroom, (stop touching the toilet seat, child) the stairs, and locked the office door because one round of books on the floor/in the recycling bin was plenty.

So now he’s everywhere, and VERY ‘helpful’. That was a hard adjustment. I never really wanted to baby proof everything, I naively thought I could just teach him his limits. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh, Sarah of a year ago, you make me laugh. Harrison does *not* understand those boundaries yet and so we childproofed the critical drawers and cupboards and my sanity was restored.

He has a wispy swath of platinum hair and a contagious laugh. We were shopping for toys and I tried one out with him. He laughed so hard that another mom stopped by and grabbed it for a birthday gift for her baby. One thing this month that I’m noticing (or finally cluing in to) is a certain aspect of his personality – his desire to run the show. It really makes some of his sleep issues when he was itty bitty make more sense to me. I was mentioning this to my friend and she said her son is just like that so I don’t think it’s uncommon but it’s more and more noticeable every day. To summarize, everything that he does or has done to him has to be on *his* terms. When we were trying to get him to crawl, nothing made him more upset than our help. Finally he had to do it on his own. Same with walking. He won’t let us hold his hand (he did once for five steps) to guide him. I don’t know the word to describe it, but he’s not super INDEPENDENT, like he’ll still let me spoon/fork feed him if that makes sense in the moment, and he likes being carried as well (although he’s 25lbs and I can’t carry him long term), but he just won’t be coaxed into something. He will smile and wave to people all the livelong day, as long as he’s the one to initiate.

I mentioned our trip to Alberta in my post about holiday travel, and it went well. I was terrified that it was going to be a disaster but the trip there was AMAZING (he cuddled with me and his book. Like what?) and the trip home wasn’t as good but still not terrible. And look, I got to meet my first ever niece and she was such a doll.

I might have hijacked her because I needed to wear a baby. That’s her in our Beco Gemini that I just HAPPENED to have on hand. I was also able to help my brother and sister in law with the fit on their cloth diapers and now they’re hoping to use AppleCheeks exclusively. Yay!

Harrison has been a peach with the Christmas tree. Occasionally he goes and touches it and then moves on. I got him his own little felt one that I stuck on the wall and he decorates that a lot so maybe that’s why.

We are going to get Harrison a few Christmas gifts but it’s going to be a quiet Christmas at our house this year. All our family lives in Alberta and we aren’t going home for the holidays so we’ll maybe order some Chinese food or something. What are y’all’s plans?

A transplant from western Canada, Sarah and her husband now live in Hamilton, Ontario. They are parents to a little guy, born August 2014, and have also acquired two plants to care for. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @ispeakcanadian.